Former Executive Director of UNFPA To Join UN Foundation Board Of Directors

Washington, DC —
March 30, 2001

The United Nations Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Nafis Sadik -- Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General -- to their Board of Directors. Dr. Sadik previously served as the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund, or UNFPA for 14 years.

"We are thrilled to have Nafis Sadik join the UN Foundation (UNF) Board of Directors. Her keen understanding of the population challenge will help guide and further refine UNF's support of United Nations' efforts in this area," said Ted Turner, Chairman of the UN Foundation. "

With Dr. Sadik's extensive experience and insight, the Foundation will really help the UN make a difference in the lives and well-being of girls and women worldwide." Calling attention to the unique needs of women and girls, and involving women directly in the development and implementation of population policies and programs has been a central focus of Dr. Sadik's work. As Secretary-General of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, Dr. Sadik was instrumental in formulating innovative ways to think about population and its relation to development. Through ICPD, she helped re-shift the population debate from numbers and demographics to include individual rights, needs and choices.

"By investing in human development, the international community can meet a number of global challenges: stabilizing population growth, ensuring a sustainable future and improving the quality of life. The UN Foundation recognizes the link between population and development by supporting UN efforts to increase availability of voluntary family planning programs, improve reproductive health care, emphasize women's role in economic and human development, and eliminate the education gap between boys and girls," Nafis Sadik said. "I look forward to using my experience with UNFPA to help the Foundation continue its outstanding work to help the UN meet the needs of the six billion people living in the world."

A national of Pakistan, Dr. Sadik is a member of the Board of Governors of the Foundation for Human Development, and a member of the South Asian Commission on the Asian Challenge. Dr. Sadik was the President of the Society for International Development (SID) from 1994 to 1997.

Dr. Sadik has written numerous articles for leading publications in the family planning, health, and population and development fields, and edited several books, among them: Population: The UNFPA Experience (New York University Press, 1984), Population Policies and Programmes: Lessons Learned from Two Decades of Experience, (New York University Press, 1991), and Making a Difference: Twenty-five Years of UNFPA Experience, (Banson, London, United Kingdom, 1994).

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The United Nations Foundation was created in 1998 with businessman and philanthropist R.E. Turner’s historic gift to support UN causes. The United Nations Foundation promotes a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world through the support of the United Nations and its Charter. Through its grantmaking and by building new and innovative public-private partnerships, the United Nations Foundation acts to meet the most pressing health, humanitarian, socioeconomic, and environmental challenges of the 21st century.